Top AI Chatbots - You Must Try in 2025

When you think of using an AI chatbot, you may consider ChatGPT. This is quite obvious because it has become so popular due to its ability to understand and communicate like a human figure. If you take a pause and consider a holistic approach, you will be stunned to see that it is just one of many. 

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Yes, it will take time for you to look for alternatives to ChatGPT, experiment, and then work with them. I did the same. It took me time to digest that ChatGPT is not the only AI chatbot to carry out different tasks. 

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I was keen to understand and discover other options and see their effectiveness in different areas. I realized that there is no definite list of AI chatbots. It is one such field that keeps evolving and changing every other day. So, you need to keep track of them. For instance, one chatbot can offer a free trial today, and after a month, you may see some changes or limitations. That’s the beauty of these chatbots. 

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As I dedicated my time and effort to exploring some of them, I found that there are also many options to build a custom chatbot for yourself. This opens up large opportunities and possibilities. It’s actually very interesting! 

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I’m sure you will find these AI Chatbots pretty informative and helpful. But yes, never mind, if you one day find some information outdated. Not my fault! It’s because these chatbots are too quick to come up with the latest models and features. 

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Overview of the best AI chatbots

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Inside the AI chatbot 

Initially, I felt overwhelmed by the quick response of these chatbots. Later, I was curious to know what exactly goes into it. When I started reading about it, I was stunned to know that it’s not as simple as it seems—the real hard work goes on behind the scenes. 

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It has a strong system that involves conversational design principles and LLM (Large Language Models). 

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What really surprised me was the fact that these bots rely on pre-trained models and custom logic to respond promptly to each query. 

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Slowly, I understood that the best chatbots are the ones that use transformer-based LLMs to understand meaning and intent and create answers. These LLMs focus on learning from user interactions to enhance accuracy. 

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The one thing that stood apart was the process behind its memory. Some bots cannot retain memory for the long term. Thus, they are more likely to remember only the ongoing conversations. At the same time, some are fantastic at managing long-term memory across different sessions. 

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They ensure that whatever you tell them is recorded and stored. So, when you come back again after a few days or weeks and ask a question related to it, it can answer you in the same tone and consistency (unless you delete the memory). The best example is ChatGPT. 

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This is just the basics. I also dug into understanding how these chatbots integrate APIs, trigger different workflows, and access databases. I found out that most of these AI chatbots use REST APIs and Webhooks to automate tasks such as updating records or extracting customer data. 

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They intend to trigger workflows using JSON payloads and secure authentication such as OAuth. Some of them even directly extract information from currently available databases, thereby giving a feel of experiencing automation engines.

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Reasoning models or LLMs: Which one is better? 

After spending days understanding the difference between LLMs and reasoning models, I finally concluded that it wouldn’t be fair to say that either of them is better. Depending on the usage, both are effective. Here’s what my research said: 

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LLMs (Large Language Models), such as GPT-4 (available in ChatGPT Plus), are superb when it comes to comparing fluency, contextual understanding, and language. They are typically trained in large datasets and excel at generating codes, summarizing, creative writing, and basic human interaction. Quite often, Pure LLMs struggle with multi-step logic or arithmetic and complex problems. No doubt about its capability, but the way they are prompted or whether structured reasoning techniques such as chain-of-thought prompting is used or not. 

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To fill this gap, new models came up that are designed focusing on the reasoning area.   

These models often have hybrid systems where a combination of LLMs and symbolic logic or some external tools such as retrievers, calculators or reasoning models are used. When these are used, Modern LLMs such as GPT-4-Turbo perform better as compared to older models in the area of highly logic-based tasks. 

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I also noticed that Anthropic’s Claude provides better transparency and step-by-step reasoning. At the same time, I wondered how a pure LLM could perform so smoothly. After diving deeper, I found that it is trained on Constitutional AI, which often focuses on thoughtful responses and ethical reasoning. So even though it is not a modern LLM, it still behaves like one, in the area of reasoning. This has been solely possible due to its internal focus on rationale and clarity. 

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In a nutshell, I would say that LLMs are better when you need rich and natural answers or want to generate quality content. On the other hand, if you need to perform tasks with accuracy, better explanation, or logic-focused answers, relying on reasoning models is a better option. 

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How do you select the best AI chatbot for you? (what I did) 

When I saw multiple options, I was not able to pick one. Then, I realized that all chatbots excel in different areas. There is no one-size-fits-all type of system. So, I took a deep breath and first identified what my needs were whether I wanted assistance in writing, task completion, brainstorming, or emotional support. Once I figured that out, I carefully picked a few factors and compared each of them. 

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Initially, I looked at the types of interaction I required at that moment daily or casual use. For daily corporate tasks GPT-4 (in the Plus plan) and flexible, human-like conversation, I found ChatGPT to be the best. Even the free version (GPT-3.5) is great and quite useful.

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Then, I looked for customization. If you are a business person and into branding, you would want certain things in a particular brand tone or from your content bucket. This is where I discovered chatbots like Wonderchat and Chatbase to be the best. 

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Then, I looked at comfort. It doesn’t make sense to invest time or money into a chatbot that is just too complicated to use. To avoid getting drained, I preferred testing only those chatbots that have a user-friendly interface. In terms of usability, I found Tidio and Chatbot.com to be the best. 

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Next, I went for integration. Since my normal day looks like juggling between Gmail, Slack, and other business websites,  I wanted a chatbot that could easily become a part of their team. At the same time, I also looked for the value of money. Here, I found that there are many powerful chatbots like Drift, which are worthy but a little expensive. In the affordable price range, I found Crisp, Copilot. Live and Poe to be beneficial. If you are looking for a more simplified solution without too much of setup, then Copilot.Live is the best choice.

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In the end, it was time for try and test rounds. I participated in it using many free trials and even tried training a few on my business documents. This hands-on experience is a must to check the tone, speed, and accuracy. Rather than believing in others, it is far better to check yourself and then make a wiser decision. 

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Finally, I picked ChatGPT for drafting important emails and brainstorming. Chatbase for using content-based bots and Tidio for web chats. But yes, day by day, many new chatbots are getting added to the list. Make sure you also check them out. 

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AI chatbots in detail (role-wise distribution)

1. Copilot.Live

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Custom assistant for business workflows 

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I explored this AI chatbot and found it to be a really smart and beginner-friendly tool for building AI chatbots that can be easily trained on custom data. It gives the flexibility to upload PDFs, websites, and even Google Drive and Notion. Handling and setting the chatbot is damn easy (you might not even require a tech person to do it) and excels at accuracy based on the information you feed into it. 

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What I really admired about this chatbot was its ability to be flexible enough to provide the options of AI Models. This means you can easily select any AI models, such as xAI’s Grok model, GPT-4, GPT-3.5, and Gemini 1.5, as per your needs. Besides accessing them at your convenience, you can even integrate them with WhatsApp, websites, and even with Boltic to automate workflows efficiently.

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Also, I liked how it handled voice calls and provided 24/7 customer support and personalized assistance. Overall, it's good for corporate work. 

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The Copilot.Live has a free plan, which is amazing if you are an individual marketer or have a small team. It provides basic integration features and up to 100 messages/month. This is more than enough for testing, I feel. If you are an enterprise and seeking better and more advanced features, then upgrading to paid plans would be a fair deal. 

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Pros: 

• It is majorly built on powerful AI models like GPT-4. This gives a conversation a human touch and allows one to understand the context better. 
• Best for automating emails, summarizing long-piece content, task planning, and structuring. 
• The free plan has great features that can be sufficient for small businesses. 

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Cons: 

• Does not integrate with the help desk or CRM tools like Chatbot.com. 
• The paid plan starts at $59/month or $1,199 (one-time purchase), which can be pretty expensive for small businesses. 

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Growth plan - $59/month (billed at $708 annually), Business plan - $129/month (billed at $1548 annually), Enterprise plan - custom pricing. For add-on features, it offers Elite Copilot Assistance - $1199 (one-time payment). For monthly pricing, visit here.

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2. Chatbot

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Chatbot builder for websites

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I was actually impressed with this one. Let me tell you why. When I started exploring it, it didn’t let me get confused—it guided me clearly with a user-friendly interface and a drag-and-drop builder. This made it so simple and interesting to design the flow of the conversations without any hassle of writing code. Within a few minutes, I created a chatbot for my personal website. Beyond greeting the visitors, this chatbot was able to answer their questions and collect leads.

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In this process, what caught my attention was its built-in templates that were designed for different industries such as Education, Customer Service, and E-commerce. To test, I tried its customer service one, made little modifications as per my needs, and quickly connected to my customer service team. 

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While I was unsure whether it would work, it performed well and, handled many inquiries with accurate answers and even passed on the chat to the live agent as and when required. My team was happy with it as they finally got relief from handling repetitive queries manually! 

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What about pricing? I opted for its 14-day free trial (Starter plan), which was perfect for me to explore these features before investing money into it. The best part is that this free trial period is available for all its plans (except the Enterprise plan). 

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Pros: 

• No-code builder feature is great for beginners 
• Saves time for business owners who are looking for industry-specific templates 
• Smoothly integrates with tools like Messenger, LiveChat 

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Cons: 

• Offers limited chat volume in lower paid plans (1000 chats/month). Thus, it is not suitable for high-traffic websites.
• Does not have advanced AI language ability like Claude or GPT-4. This can slightly affect the quality of the conversation. 

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Starter plan - $52/month (billed yearly), Teams plan - $142/month (billed yearly), Business plan - $424 (billed yearly), Enterprise plan - Custom pricing. If you are looking for a monthly plan, check here.

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3. Zendesk

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Chatbot for ticketing and customer services 

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Zendesk's AI chatbot majorly focuses on customer service teams, and it is pretty good at it when integrated with the full suite of Zendesk. Of course? Nothing is surprising about it. This chatbot takes care of ticket routing, FAQs, and even follow-ups quickly. If you are willing to automate your customer support, it is nice to scale it. 

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Digging into it, I found that its beauty lies in its capability to fit into different workflows. It can smoothly extract data from CRM systems ticket escalation while offering context-based answers based on the data. 

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The Flow builder is also super cool for beginners and does not demand coding. For international businesses, it offers multilingual support in all plans (except the ‘Support Team’ plan). 

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So yes, this clearly shows that you cannot access this AI chatbot alone you need to buy Zendesk’s full-suite subscription. If you are a small business, this may sound out of your budget and needs. 

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Pros: 

• Offers advanced analytics and reporting tools to measure customer satisfaction, performance, and agent handling smoothly. 
• This chatbot is highly secure and well-compliant. So, industries like healthcare can easily trust it without privacy concerns.
• Has pre-built integrations with popular business tools like Shopify, Salesforce, and Slack. This minimizes the need for custom development.
•  If you are a startup, you can apply and get 6 months of free access to it.  

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Cons: 

• Offers a limited scope of visual customization for the widget without the developer’s involvement. This can restrict the flexibility of your brand in the future. 
• The performance of the AI chatbot majorly depends on the historical data you have fed it. If you are new, it can take more time to train the system in a better and more systematic way. 
• If you have no prior experience in help desk systems, then you may find it a bit difficult to learn initially. 
• You cannot access Zendesk’s AI chatbot as a standalone one. Subscribing to its paid plan is necessary. Or you can try its 14-day trial (only available for all its Suite plans).

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Support team - $19/month/agent (billed annually), Suite Team - $55/month/agent (billed annually), Suite Professional - $115/month/agent (billed annually), Suite Enterprise - Custom Pricing, For Startups - 6 months free (not readily available, you need to apply to get it). For monthly pricing and add-on plans, visit here. 

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4. Intercom‍

Chatbot for customer engagement and business automation 

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I tested the chatbot of Intercom and found that it is amazing when it comes to naturally writing personalized answers. So, we tried it to increase our conversions. Besides our small sales team, it helped to engage many visitors, get leads, and handle FAQs beautifully. It offers a combination of automation, live chat, and a shared inbox, which makes it viable for handling large amounts of data. 

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While working with it, my team noticed that its accuracy and content retention capacity are also great. It just requires you to be trained on your content. Also, it is easy to work with it across various important channels like In-app, Web, and Email. Even this chatbot offers no-code workflow customization, so no involvement of a tech person is required as long as you are familiar with how to set up workflows. 

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For seamless team operations, it integrates well with many CRMs and related tools, such as Slack, for better efficiency. In terms of pricing, it depends. It can get a little steep if you have a large business and require advanced features. 

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However, if your focus is on onboarding, lead conversion and retention, Intercom’s AI chatbot can still stand out. To try it out, it offers a 14-day trial for all its plans and even a 90% discount for Startups (to get the discount, you need to apply). 

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Pros: 

• Powerful and smart lead-generating workflow builder 
• Offers a unified inbox across multiple channels
• Provides impressive contextual accuracy with the Fin AI model

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Cons: 

• For accessing advanced features, you may find it a bit expensive 
• Not suitable for businesses that require simple chatbot setup 
• There can be some complexity in setup and customization (especially if you are not into technical areas). 

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Essential plan - $29/seat/monthly (billed annually), Advanced plan - $85/seat/month (billed annually), $132/seat/month (billed annually). For add-on plans, visit here.

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5. Freshchat (Freshworks)

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Chatbot for sales and omnichannel support 

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Similar to Intercom, Freshchat is one of the strong contenders for managing sales and support across various channels. I tried using it for WhatsApp and a website. It handled basic queries really well before passing the complex issues to the agents. 

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One of my favorite features is its proactive messaging system, which helped us in tapping the visitors at the right time. Besides that, its built-in Freddy AI works great. After training on our help docs, it provided context-based answers to our visitors. 

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It has a no-code Flow Builder, which is good enough to create conversation journeys without tech knowledge. Also, it integrates well with CRMs and thereby helps to manage tickets, leads, and campaigns all in one place.

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However, some advanced features for in-depth analytics and WhatsApp automation are not accessible in the free trial/plan. But yes, for testing purposes, it has a wide range of functionalities that can help you make a better decision. 

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The basic plans are quite beginner-friendly. But complex workflows may demand a longer time than usual. Still, it is reliable to access across mobile, web, and messaging applications. 

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Pros: 

• Provide smart and context-based answers (Freddy AI model) 
• Offers no-code Flow Builder 
• Integrates well with WhatsApp, Messenger, Web, etc. 

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Cons: 

• To access advanced features, subscribing to higher-paid plans is required
• Designing complex workflows takes a longer time than usual 
• The free plan can only cater to broader needs. 

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Growth Plan - $19/agent/month (billed annually), Pro Plan - $49/agent/month (annually), Enterprise Plan - $79/agent/month (billed annually). For the monthly plan, check here.

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6. Tidio

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Chatbot for e-commerce and small businesses 

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This is one of the amazing chatbots for small e-commerce businesses. I had a pretty good experience with it. It made it effortlessly easy to set up and integrate with platforms like WordPress and Shopify. With its free plan, we were able to capture leads, automate queries, and recover abandoned carts. 

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This chatbot has a range of templates, so you can quickly get started with it. The best part is that it hardly takes a minute to start working after it is connected to a site. My team was able to gain real-time insights into site visitors and proactively engage them with automated personalized messages. 

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It also offered multichannel support through which we could engage our audience via live chat, email, and Messenger–all through one dashboard. Besides that, it handled FAQs carefully and built flows without any code. 

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We were also happy with the analytics part. It gave clear insights into the performance of the chats and recommended where it could be improved. 

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However, the free plan allows up to only 50 live chat conversations/month and supports up to 100 chatbot triggers/month; for advanced features like typing previews of live visitor lists, upgrading to a paid plan is required. If your business has some specific or complex needs, then paid plans can be more valuable. 

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Pros: 

• Quick and easy setup and integrations with E-commerce platforms
• Pre-built templates save a lot of time
• Offers multichannel communication support to avoid chaos 

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Cons: 

• Advanced integrations and features require upgrading to paid plans 
• To create a complex workflow, you may find it a bit challenging 

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The pricing for each plan differs as per your needs. For 50 conversions, the Free plan And growth plan - start at 49.17/month, The Plus plan starts at $749/month, Premium plan - starts at $2999/month. All these are billed annually and offer 1 month free. For monthly plans and customized pricing, check here. 

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7. Hubspot Chatbot

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Chatbot for CRM integrations and sales support 

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If you are already used to HubSpot’s CRM tools, then opting for its chatbot is indeed a solid choice. This is a part of their Conversations tool and helps to qualify leads, book meetings, and even provide basic customer support. 

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I am already using HubSpot tools, so I tried this chatbot. And it went too smoothly. With its beginner-friendly drag-and-drop builder, I was able to quickly set it up without any code and, send follow-up emails and create tickets, depending on the user's replies. 

As HubSpot powers this chatbot, it seamlessly integrates with HubSpot’s CRM tools. By this, I mean that every interaction is logged and can be easily followed up by support or your sales team. 

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One of its impressive features is like ability to connect with live chat so that if in case AI can’t help due to some issues, this chatbot can easily transfer it to a human agent. Even though it does not offer high-level customization like other tech-based platforms, I found it to be fairly good for automating main business areas without starting from scratch. 

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Honestly, the free plan is good for testing. For advanced automation features and logic, you may look up to its paid plans. Whether you have a small or medium-scale business, this chatbot handles leads, routes conversations, and even manages contacts very well. 

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Pros: 

• Integrates well with HubSpot CRM for data management 
• Simply, easy-to-build bots with its no-code drag-and-drop builder 
• Better live chat support for seamless customer experience 

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Cons: 

• Not-so-flexible if you are not a part of the HubSpot ecosystem 
• Compared to other standalone chatbots, it offers limited third-party integrations 
• Features like branching logic and advanced workflows require a paid subscription 
• This chatbot cannot be accessed as a standalone application. If you need advanced features, you need to buy HubSpot’s overall plan, which includes a lot of features. In case you only require its chatbot, you may not find it worthy in terms of money investment.

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For individuals and small teams, it has a free plan, a Marketing Hub Starter plan - which starts at $15/seat/month; a Starter Customer Platform plan - which starts at $15/month; Marketing Hub Professional plan - which starts at $800/month. 
For Businesses and Enterprises, the Marketing Hub Professional plan starts at $800/month, and the Marketing Hub Enterprise plan starts at $3600/month.
‍Please note: All these plans are billed annually. 
If you are looking for a monthly plan, visit its official website.

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8. Zoho SalesIQ 

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Chatbot for sales and customer support

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In my experience, this is quite effective for real-time customer engagement and qualifying leads. I tested it on a landing page, and I was stunned to see how it smartly categorized visitors based on their behavior while handling personalized messages using AI-based Zobot. 

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The Zobot Builder is great and highly supports Zoho’s scripting (Deluge), third-party NLP tools, and even Dialogflow. It provides both advanced setups and flexibility, too. 

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It was great at transferring chats to human agents on the basis of visitors’ behavior. Also, its proactive triggers are best to capture leads at the right time. If you look at the setup, yes, it can be a bit chaotic if you need advanced customization. 

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The free plan is decent but offers limited features for high-traffic sites. If you are already a Zoho CRM user, you will love its unified customer engagement feature. 

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Pros: 

• For tracking leads, it tightly integrates with Zoho CRM. This is a plus point if you have already subscribed to Zoho’s CRM. 
• For advanced customization, it has multiple bot-building frameworks 
• Offers the best segmentation and visitor tracking tools (the free plan has a limitation of 10,000 visitors/month with 3 operator licenses and basic segmentation features; If you have a small team, this is not bad; you can at least give it a try).
• If you do not require tools of Zoho CRM, you can even use the Zoho SalesIQ chatbot as a standalone application 
• A 15-day free trial is available for all paid plans (in case you want to test its paid plans) 

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Cons:

• Compared to modern chatbots, UI can look outdated. 
• The free plan has limits on traffic volume and automation
• When using advanced bot logic, it may look technical if you are not into coding. 

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Free plan, Basic plan - US$7/operator/month (billed annually), Professional plan - US$12.75/operator/month (billed annually), Enterprise plan - US$20/operator/month (billed annually)

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9. Ada

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Chatbot for automated customer interactions 

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If you own a business and want to automate your customer support, then this is indeed a powerful chatbot. To not make it obvious and robotic, it even gives a personal touch to all answers. 

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With its no-code builder, it is easy to use and create a custom conversation flow using my help desk data in just a few minutes! What really went beyond the usual was its ability to integrate with analytics and CRM tools. 

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So here’s the catch it was able to deliver personalized responses in real-time based on the user's behavior and is even accessible easily across social channels, apps, web to ensure it’s consistent enough to support you.

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It holds the hand of mid-to-large-scale businesses very well. Even though it’s great for automation, small businesses can find it a bit overwhelming with features beyond their needs. 

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Pros: 

• No-code builder makes the setup quick and easy 
• Focuses on automation and multichannel support
• Great personalization with the help of  CRM integrations

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Cons: 

• Not suitable for small teams or casual use 
• To access advanced features, you may need to upgrade to its high-end paid plans. 

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It offers custom pricing as per your needs. Visit its official website to enquire about it. 

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10. Salesloft’s Chatbot (Drift)

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Chatbot for sales and conversational marketing 

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I tested Drift’s chatbot, which is now a part of Salesloft and found it to be very effective, especially for B2B sales and marketing. It helped us to engage our visitors who came to our landing page and assisted in getting qualified leads and booking meetings without getting manually involved. 

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One of the most interesting parts of Drift is its conversational AI and intelligent routing. It worked on it based on our company data and the behavior of the visitors. I really admired its ability to synchronize with various CRM tools like Salesforce. 

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It even has well-structured pre-built play books, which were extremely helpful to target the types of visitors. So yes, it’s better for large businesses. But, setup can be a bit complicated, and even the pricing might look costly. 

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In case your goal is to streamline the sales process and boost qualified leads, it’s definitely going to be a valuable investment. 

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Pros: 

• Best for automating meeting booking and qualifying leads 
• Target visitors and personalize the conversation in real-time 
• Effortlessly integrates well with sales and CRM tools 

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Cons: 

• If you are a first-time user, you may find it time-consuming to set up 
• If you need a chatbot outside the frame of marketing and sales, then it has very limited features 
• If you own a small business, pricing may not suit your budget. 
• Does not offer a free plan/trial for testing purposes

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It offers two paid plans - The Advanced plan and the Premier plan. Both offer custom pricing as per your needs. Check its website to request a demo.

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11. Customers.ai

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Chatbot for remarketing and website visitor identification

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This chatbot is nice for businesses that want to retarget and get the details of anonymous website visitors. Initially, setting it up on one of the landing pages was easy-peasy, and even its X-Ray Pixel did a great job of quickly identifying visitors and engaging with them with relevant questions. This was amazing as it didn’t require any tech expertise. 

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The thing that was quite admirable was its power of remarketing, of course! It synced the data of the leads with Google and Meta Ads and made it simpler to run personalized campaigns. 

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Also, it integrates smoothly with email and CRM tools. This helped us to streamline the tasks of segmenting visitors and follow-ups effectively. Thus, it is ideal for lead generation beyond basic automation support. 

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Yet, the most-liked features, such as visitor ID and ad integrations, require a subscription to its paid plans. Still, it’s a great tool for remarking. 

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Pros: 

• Solid tool for detecting anonymous visitors through X-ray Pixel 
• Offers marketing automation tools and a no-code setup system so that even a beginner can use
• Integrates well with Meta ad platforms and enhances the remarketing process 
• Offers a 7-day free trial for all its paid plans (except the ‘Marketing Agencies’ plan) 

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Cons: 

• Small teams can feel a bit overwhelmed due to advanced features 
• The free trial does not offer advanced features 
• Limited features for basic customer support (focuses on lead generation) 

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Ads plan - Starts at $199/month + identifier visitor fees, Email for E-commerce or B2B plan - Starts at $199/month + identifier visitor fees, Ads + Email plan - Starts at $399/month + identifier visitor fees, Marketing Agencies plan - custom pricing 

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12. Aivo.co

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Chatbot for real-time customer service 

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Aivo is good at providing real-time customer service across various channels, such as WhatsApp and websites. It responded to each query with a human-like conversational tone with the right balance of automation. This looked as if a real human was interacting at twice the 2x speed. 

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One of my favorite features was obviously the conversational AI. It handled the follow-up questions with great clarity and was able to understand the context well. To cater to different habits of customers, it even supports voice and video along with text (most of the AI chatbots lack here). 

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Besides that, it transferred the important calls to live agents seamlessly, ensuring that the context was not compromised. Also, if you cater globally, it offers multilingual support. I was quite impressed by these features. 

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However, it is not that ideal for small teams or businesses. It is more inclined towards medium and large-scale businesses and requires some sort of setup. With custom pricing, it is excellent if you want high-quality customer service and have a good budget. 

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Pros: 

• Offers great omnichannel support 
• Smoothly escalate to live agents while maintaining the flow of the conversation 
• Smart and reliable conversational AI that is good at contextual understanding 

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Cons: 

• Does not offer any free plan/trial for testing
• No definite pricing. But, it provides custom pricing tailored to your business needs 
• Not suitable for small businesses 

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It offers only one paid plan, the ‘Custom’ plan - custom pricing (based on your needs)

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13. Wati.io

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Chatbot for automating WhatsApp business 

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If you are someone who is struggling to automate WhatsApp Business, then you must look up to this chatbot. It excels at providing customer support. 

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I tried it and found that integration was really quick, and the bot handled all queries, FAQs, and even order tracking easily with a simple conversational flow. With no tech support, I could really set up and customize it as per my needs. 

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It created workflows for both marketing and customer service. Also, I tested his capacity to handle messaging, leads, and send notifications. And guess what? It was a true gem. Also, it integrated well with email marketing and CRM platforms and offered a comprehensive customer engagement solution. 

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Even though it focuses on WhatsApp, it supports integrations with Facebook and Instagram. Thus, it allows for multichannel interactions through a unified inbox.

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Pros: 

• Smoothly integrates with WhatsApp and offers features for marketing and customer service
• Easy setup, no fuss
• Offers a 7-day free trial to try and test basic features and functionality 
• Automates WhatsApp workflows and collects leads effectively 

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Cons: 

• Not as advanced an AI chatbot as others
• Predefined flows can make conversations a bit boring 

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Growth plan - $59/month (billed annually), Pro plan - $119/month (billed annually), and Business plan - $279/month (billed annually). For monthly plans, visit its official website. 

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14. Chatfuel

Chatbot for automating Meta platforms 

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It is a nice option if you want to create an interactive experience on Meta platforms (Instagram and Facebook Messenger). Here, the setup is pretty easy and has a visual builder that requires no code. 

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I used it to qualify leads, handle FAQs, and automate customer interactions with its pre-made templates. Chatfuel also has some over-the-top AI features, such as NLP, to better understand the user's intent and integrate better with marketing and CRM tools. 

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It can generate automated responses with a personalized touch throughout the entire interaction based on the user's behavior. And it is great at it. 

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Chatfuel supports multichannel communication, including platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and websites, allowing businesses to engage customers across various channels., Also, it supports automation for many use cases, such as appointment booking, product recommendations, and even campaign follow-ups. 

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It also offers a detailed insight into analytics and helps me optimize my workflow properly. Chatfuel does not offer a free plan but a 7-day free trial (only for its Business Plan) so you can test it. 

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Pros: 

• Good at capturing leads and bifurcating them 
• Offers a 7-day free trial for 50 free conversations (only in the Business plan) 
• Offers smart automation for support and sales-related workflows 

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Cons: 

• Advanced customization can require technical assistance and consume a little extra time 
• Does not offer free trial in Enterprise plan (both for WhatsApp plan and Facebook and Instagram plan)
• Majorly focuses on Meta platforms

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For Facebook and Instagram, the Business plan starts at $23.99/month, Enterprise plan starts at $399/month (need to book a consultation for exact pricing). 
For WhatsApp, the Business plan starts at $34.49/month, Enterprise plan starts at $300/month (need to book a consultation for exact pricing). 

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15. Botsify

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Chatbot for Education, Healthcare, and customer support

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This is a versatile chatbot that is great for industries such as healthcare and education and even for customer support. The setup was quite simple, and I was able to quickly launch a chatbot on Facebook Messenger and websites without any coding experience. 

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In the case of use cases, it supports both AI and rule-based bots and makes it flexible enough to work on them. Also, it helped us to collect leads, schedule appointments, and answer FAQs very well. 

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The best part is its multilingual bots and integration with business tools like WordPress and Slack. The bot hybrid + live chat feature made it easier to jump into different conversations and also added a human element to automated flows. So, yes, it was an overall good experience. 

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Compared to other modern chatbots, the UI can make you feel a little outdated. However, I saw that advanced features like while-labeling and chatbot analytics are available only in high-tier plans, which can sound a bit costly. 

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Still, if you are an educator, have a support team or a service provider, Botsify does a great job with solid functionality and a simple bot builder. 

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Pros: 

• Offers a free demo for new users so that you can explore its features
• Hybrid live chat makes it easy to set up 
• Supports various industries and platforms 

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Cons: 

• Most of the advanced features are locked in the high-tier plans 
• Offers very limited built-in analytics tool in starter plans 
• The interface is not so modern. 

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‘Do it Yourself’ plan - $490/month (billed annually with 2 months free), ‘Done for You’ plan - $1490/month (billed annually with 2 months free), Custom plan - custom pricing

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16. Crisp.chat

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Chatbot for Multi-channel messaging 

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This chatbot is designed specifically for mid-sized businesses. It helped us with real-time customer engagement. I set up a demo website to test it. 

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And yes, it performed decently and instantly responded to FAQs, passed the complex queries to live agents, and even collected visitors’ information quickly. The setup was quite straightforward, and the shared inbox made it easier to manage messages with multiple channels. 

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As I went on, I found these really interesting features: the co-browsing feature and the real-time typing preview feature. As my team was not confident with it, it boosted our energy and gave us a head start on solving customer problems.

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Besides that, it also integrates well with various tools like Slack and HubSpot. I also discovered that it can bring any automation scenarios to life with its no-code builder. 

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It could even connect with external APIs as and when required and thus became very handy for our teams. However, advanced features are locked in the free plan (most of them are available only in the Pro and Unlimited plans). 

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While Crisp offers a free plan suitable for startups, access to advanced features requires paid plans, which may be a consideration for budget-conscious startups.

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Besides that, it supports various channels such as Messenger, Email, and Instagram, and offer native WhatsApp integrations too. This way it allow messages to flow directly into the Crisp inbox.

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Pros: 

• Shared inbox channels make it easy to set up 
• Forever free plan is available (only for 2 seats)
• Offer smart integrations with a no-code bot builder 
• Provides collaborative experience if you want to automate and centralize customer support 
• Provide built-in features for WhatsApp integration 
• A free trial is available for all paid plans

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Cons: 

• If you have fast-scaling teams, you may feel that some features are limited compared to other tools 
• To access advanced features, you need to subscribe to higher-tier plans 

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Mini plan - $45/month/workspace, Essentials plan - $95/month/workspace, Plus plan - $295/month/workspace ($14.5 only per seat) 

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17. Pandorabots

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AIML-focused chatbot developer 

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I tried Pandorabots and found it to be the best for developers and teams that have technical knowledge. It is nice to build customizable AI chatbots. 

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It is powered by the AIML framework (Artificial Intelligence Markup Language) and provides better control of the way the bot responds. I tried and build a sample bot with the help of a web-based IDE. 

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Even though it was a bit difficult to deal with it (especially if you are not from a technical background), the help of technical experts, helped us to deeply customize the bot in a way other no-code builders don’t. Honestly, it was worth putting time and effort into it! 

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Also, hats off to its ability to handle complex conversations. Yes, it is great at it and thus suitable for creating chatbots with a simple and consistent persona. 

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During the testing period, it helped me to host the bot on a website and even deploy it across channels like Telegram, Slack, and even Alexa. 

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Thus, it is not suitable for beginners or for someone who just needs a quick solution. It takes a while to walk through it, and even its interface is not that intriguing. 

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But yes, it is super nice for someone with a technical background who wants full control and seeks to build a conversational bot with an open-source nature. 

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Pros: 

• Free plan is available (but with limited features, good for testing) 
• Developer-friendly and deeply customizable with full control
• Offers 2-week trial for Developer and Pro plan 
• Provides great support for deploying across multiple channels 
• Good for building conversational bots 

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Cons: 

• Not suitable for beginners 
• Take a while to get used to it 
• UI is outdated as compared to other chatbots 

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Sandbox plan (free), Developer plan - $19/month Pro plan - $199/month, Enterprise plan - Custom pricing

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18. Wonderchat.io

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Chatbot for creating AI bots trained on custom data 

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This is quite a simple platform for building chatbots that are trained on custom data. Initially, the setup was super quick and hassle-free. I just uploaded some important PDFs and added a website link, and that’s it! The bot was ready to answer all the questions related to it within just a few minutes. 

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Thus, I found it more suitable for creating bots for our internal team or as an educational tool. Anyone can build this, irrespective of their background. The cherry on the cake was its accuracy. 

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It accurately answered the users as per the content uploaded to it. In those PDFs, I had given some FAQs related to a company and other vital documentation, and the answers felt natural. I also appreciate its feature of embedding. I could literally insert it on any website to any website with a simple link. This made it easier to deploy across many use cases. 

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While it focuses on single-source, static data training, it also offer integrations with platforms like HubSpot, Slack, and Zendesk through Zapier.

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Even though Wonderchat supports some integrations, it may not suitable for larger enterprises looking for extensive multichannel automation or advanced workflow customization. But yes, it is nice for creating quick and content-focused bots.

Pros: 

• Simple and easy to set up with the help of URLs and PDFs 
• Offers a free trial plan (with 10 free messages)
• Based on custom data, it provides accurate answers 
• Great for beginners who are looking for a no-coding platform

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Cons: 

• Does not offer advanced integrations and logic 
• Not suitable for complex needs for automation 
• Limited to only content-focused use cases 

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Starter plan - $24/month (billed annually), Basic plan - $83/month (billed annually), Turbo plan - $208/month (billed annually), Professional plan - $416/month, and Enterprise plan - custom pricing. For monthly plans, check here. 

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Not-so-popular AI chatbots 

While I was exploring and testing chatbots, obviously, I couldn’t list all of them above. Even though I tried covering the major ones, I cannot sideline the lesser-known ones. Here are some of them; you must dive into and uncover their functionality. For a clear and better understanding, I have categorized them according to their usage. Hope you find it useful. :)

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For knowledge-based business assistant

Chatbase is an underrated chatbot that you can train based on your custom business data. You can add data in the form of PDFs, text, and website links, and this chatbot will answer your queries based on that knowledge. It is best suited for product development teams, service-based businesses, educators, and anybody who wants to use custom data to build a business or a product. 

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AskAI is quite similar to it. The best part is that you can categorize knowledge as per domains and use it for customer support assistance. Here, you can upload company policies, product/service manuals, and FAQs. Once you are done with adding information, it will provide relevant answers to your questions. 

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For developers

Rasa is an open-source platform that is designed specifically for developers. If you are a developer, you can easily add your custom data and logic to it and use it for automation. If you are keen to deploy your own chatbot system for professional use, then this is a nice option. The only drawback is that it requires highly technical knowledge and experience to deal with it. Rest assured, it’s great to implement various business solutions without third-party services. 

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Botpress is also an open-source platform but is more user-friendly due to its visual builder. Here, the best part is that it adopts a privacy-first policy. So, you can openly host it on-premise with full data control. Also, it has NLP capabilities, which is amazing for businesses that are looking to customize and prioritize privacy over third-party cloud hosting. 

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For experimental conversations 

‍Pi is a platform that is more focused on emotional intelligence and generating thoughtful answers. It’s best in personal and reflective conversations about an individual. If you want an AI tool beyond ChatGPT that behaves like your buddy rather than a mere tool, then this one is great. For those who are depressed or too stressed, this can be a perfect choice to provide emotional support and a heart-to-heart talk. 

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Poe is a multi-bot platform that offers a range of AI model options in one place. For instance, it provides access to GPT-4, Claude, and allows you to compare the responses more flexibly. Here, without switching tabs, you can test them in parallel. This makes it possible for creative tasks, brainstorming sessions, or to actually test various AI models to complete a particular task. 

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And the list is endless. I have just mentioned a few of them. If you look closely, you will be surprised to see how, each day, a new chatbot is launched in a different area.

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Which chatbot must you use for daily tasks?

If you want to distribute your daily work pressure, then with ChatGPT, even Claude by Anthropic, is much smoother. I tried it and found it to be amazing. It helped me to rewrite content in a simple and intriguing way, structure my personal thoughts, summarize long documents, PDFs, and emails, and even organize my daily to-do lists as per priority. Like ChatGPT, this also has a human-centric tone and can understand context very well without getting overwhelmed.

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In case you are at a senior level and want some assistance to handle clients and deal with multiple inquiries, then HubSpot Chatbot or Tidio can be preferable. They offer specialized services in terms of real-time customer support in a more professional manner. They are nice for planning daily tasks and executing them. So, wherever you have a thought, just write it down here, and it will help you craft a better strategy or a solution in a faster and smarter way.

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Which AI chatbot is right for you?

It totally depends on what your needs are. For instance, I wanted to use a chatbot for writing emails, drafting answers for customers, minutes of the meeting, and other such daily tasks. Like me, if you want to use a chatbot as an assistant for daily corporate communication and business, Tidio and Intercom are some of the top picks.

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Whereas, if you want to have personal conversations, emotional support, or thoughtful responses, ChatGPT (especially its GPT-4 model, available in ChatGPT Plus and accessible via several other platforms like Merlin AI) is great. It is not only smart but also capable of communicating effectively.

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So, it's important to know which chatbot excels where and then match your needs with them.

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AI chatbots vs AI writer 

As Chatbot is versatile and can be used for writing as well, you might wonder if AI Chatbot and AI Writer are on the same page. Wouldn’t you? Let’s dive in.

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Even I had the same question. So, I simply tried them and checked the difference. When I tried ChatGPT and Intercom as one of the AI Chatbots, I felt like I was talking to the smartest buddy with whom I could discuss anything about life, ask questions, and even brainstorm on different areas. Pretty much like an open book, it has answers to all my questions.

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This is because it carefully understands the flow. Even though I sometimes made grammatical errors while talking to it, it understood me correctly using its natural language processing. In terms of memory, they are pretty good. For instance, if I tell them that I went to an adventure park 1 month ago, they will remember it (until you delete the memory or type in ‘temporary chat’ in ChatGPT). 

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Furthermore, it is great at picking up your tone and language. If you talk to it in a friendly tone, it will reply to you in the same tone and flow. This made me feel more comfortable and less awkward, even though it answers like a robot.

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Flipping the side, I tested Jasper AI and Writesonic as one of the AI Writers. When I use it to write a blog post, social media copies, or even some taglines, they ensure that my content is polished and structured enough for the readers to enjoy and understand clearly. 

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It can do both—write and refine the content as you desire. These tools even provide writing model options like Professional, Friendly, and Persuasive. Even though they are behind bars, they still use big language models such as GPT, and they still focus on producing optimized content, features like SEO hints, writing templates, etc.

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In a nutshell, AI Chatbots are the ones that act and talk as a best friend and an open dictionary. Whereas AI Writers help me write confidently without any errors in a preferred style and tone with SEO tools.

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How much does it cost to use an AI chatbot? 

Typically, the cost to use an AI Chatbot varies as per the platform and, of course, its main features. Nowadays, with its huge demand, many have come up with solid free plans. For instance, Tidio has a free plan for individuals and small businesses with limited features. Its paid plan starts at $24.17/per month when billed annually. With this, it also offers 2 months free as compared to its monthly payment cycle. Similarly, even HubSpot offers a free chatbot builder with limited features. 

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Such free plans and low-tier paid plans are absolute bliss for a small group of teams. However, if you are looking for some enterprise-level solutions, they may cost you a bit more. But yes, it will be value for money. 

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For example, Drift and Intercom offer interesting engagement tools powered by AI. But they were slightly expensive. The pricing starts at $29/seat/month (when billed annually) and $3500/month (billed annually), respectively. So, this way for advanced features and services, costing depends on your needs and budget.